Solar panels face further pressure

US plans more tariffs on Chinese imports

The US plans to set expanded penalties on imports of certain solar power products from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan in a preliminary finding issued over the weekend, which a Chinese trade expert said on Sunday may pile up more pressure on China's solar energy exporters already suffering from existing duties.

Certain solar panels and cells from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan are being sold at an unfair price, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) said on Friday in a statement on its website, calling for preliminary anti-dumping duties as high as 165.04 percent for some mainland companies and up to 44.18 percent for some Taiwanese manufacturers.

As a result of the proposal, cash deposits based on the preliminary rates will be required ranging from 10.74 percent to 165.04 percent for Chinese goods, the statement said.

The Friday announcement came on top of anti-subsidy levies of up to 35.2 percent imposed on imports from the mainland by the DOC in early June, in an escalation of the trade friction in the solar energy industry between the two countries that began in 2012.

Fan Zhenhua, director of legal affairs at Yingli Solar, a major mainland exporter of solar products whose two subsidiaries face duties of 42.33 percent, said Sunday "it is early to assess the impact of the preliminary anti-dumping duties [on Chinese solar goods]."

Actions are yet to be considered to deal with the new penalties, Fan told the Global Times, citing the lack of clarification of specific products that will be subject to the duties.

Trina Solar, a US-listed company based in Changzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, which has two affiliated arms affected by the latest DOC ruling, said on Sunday it would not make a response until Monday.

China's Ministry of Commerce could not be immediately reached for comment. But the ministry has repeatedly voiced discontent at the US rulings, which it believes to be an abuse of trade remedy measures.

In a statement posted on its website on Friday, SolarWorld Industries America Inc, the petitioner of the complaint, said it commended the DOC determination.

The Hillsboro-based US arm of German solar manufacturer SolarWorld AG claimed in the statement that its filing of the current cases is intended to close a "loophole" as many Chinese mainland producers evaded the duties set in late 2012 by "commissioning manufacturers in other countries [and regions] to partially or fully produce solar photovoltaic cells for assembly into solar panels back in [the mainland]."

At least 70 percent of US imports from the Chinese mainland contain Taiwanese cells, SolarWorld claimed in its statement, citing unidentified Chinese media.

Refusing to call it an exploitation of loopholes, Fan at Yingli Solar said "the use of cells [manufactured in other markets] is actually an effective way to soothe the impact [of the penalties] under the existing legal framework."

SolarWorld said it is acting with support from the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing, which represents more than 250 solar-industry businesses with nearly 25,000 US employees.

But Jigar Shah, president of the US industry organization - Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, said in a statement released on Friday that the DOC announcement "is another unnecessary obstacle for the US solar industry that will hinder the deployment of clean energy by raising the prices of solar products."

In the wake of rising barriers to overseas market entry, Chinese solar product companies are expected to be increasingly focused on the domestic Chinese market where there is strong demand for clean energy, Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Sunday.

In the case of the latest DOC announcement, Bai believes Taiwanese companies, which were only affected by the penalties lately, might be more vulnerable to such trade remedies compared to their mainland counterparts that have already been heavily battered in the case in 2012.

The DOC is set to announce its final determinations on the anti-dumping duties in mid-December, while the US International Trade Commission will make its final injury ruling in January 2015.